Lossless streaming service by Apple

Amazon follows… RIP spotify.
Spotify's HiFi was expected to be competitively priced at $20 a month when the company announced its plans earlier this year.
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But Apple's and Amazon's decisions to make lossless quality a standard part of their $10-a-month subscriptions will put immense pressure on Spotify to follow suit if it hopes to stay competitive.
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www.cnet.com

Apple Music, Amazon add high fidelity free. Spotify's is coming (and maybe soon)

Apple Music will add lossless audio quality for regular members in June. Amazon Music Unlimited did it -- surprise! -- right now. Spotify's move may come soon.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
 
I guess all platforms will eventually have HiFi included in base cost. Might kill smaller/niche music streaming services but don't think it will impact Spotify that much in the long run. They will probably end up offering HiFi included sooner rather than later.
Music streaming services have a fair amount of stickiness (On account of playlists/recommendations etc). This will buy them at least a few months to catch up before customers start leaving in large numbers.

However I'm not sure how accessible lossless audio via Apple Music will be for a lot of people. For example - I will not be able to take advantage of it in any of my content consumption workflows -
  • iPhone with Airpods/Bluetooth headphones - No HiFi cause of BT codecs
  • Android TV - Don't know if it will be available on this yet
  • HTPC - Won't be available on Windows
  • Airplay receiver - I'm not sure about this one but seems unlikely airports will be updated for this considering even homepods are left in the dark
The options available don't seem very convenient
  • iPhone/iPad/Macbook Stock Speaker - Almost never use this for content consumption. I don't think it would make much of a difference on these speakers anyway (idk though)
  • iPhone with DAC convertor & wired headphones - Additional items to keep track off
  • iPad/Macbook with Wired Headphones - Fair option but feels like going backwards
  • Apple TV - Overpriced IMO but starting to look more attractive - Possibly the only option for someone with a proper HiFi setup. I don't think anyone would want to have a tethered setup between the audio receiver/DAC/Amp and an iDevice
I suspect this is Apple prepping to sell the Next Gen Airpods that support lossless.
They have just figured out how to sell new airpods to a large amount of existing users that otherwise would not have considered upgrading. Adding to the planned obsolescence problem. Didn't good audio gear last a lifetime?

Curious to see how spatial audio will sound though - and how much of a difference it can make.
 
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booo said:
not dolby atmos. sony 360 reality audio which no one cares about.
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Tidal has 360 audio too. See the screenshot from my app
 

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msankadi said:
Tidal has 360 audio too. See the screenshot from my app
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like i said 360 reality audio is from sony and not dolby atmos(which is supported by mainstream)
y2s said:
Curious to see how spatial audio will sound though - and how much of a difference it can make.
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The U1 devices can be accurately tracked in 3d space. apple devices use this to create spatial audio. you can test this today using airpods pro and watching any dolby atmos enabled movie in apple tv app. none of the other services/devices can do this without the u1 chip. i have purchased airpods pro for this specific reason. this is why also the apple watch can detect hand washing (introduced post covid) accurately.
 
Apple is definitely double-dripping its customer user base with this Lossless release, especially when no audio products from Apple supports it. A less than 6 months AirPods Max is now rendered useless when Apple could have easily supported Sony LDAC which is capable of playing Lossless.

This means that they'll again make their proprietary technology like LDAC and charge customers exorbitant money. The AirPods Max is surely the most pointless & expensive Apple product I've used.
 
Apple is one of those companies which loves to charge loyalty fees on its tech so I highly doubt they will ever support Sony's proprietary LDAC. Most probably they will be releasing their own version of it. There certainly aren't any resource crunches in Apple as when they can develop their own chip to replace Intel so another bluetooth codec is no big deal.

Coming to APM, yes it should have been launched with that codec from the very beginning considering how recently it was launched. Pity those who bought it though not like that segment of customer do even cares. Also transmitting device like iPhone also need to have that bluetooth tech enabled at hardware level so next version of iPhones most probably have it first and then AirPods will follow.
 
Not sure whether this will even be available in India. Amazon HD is still not.

@y2s : I have a Win 10 HTPC with iTunes, Marantz AVR, Sony X90H, OP7 & iPhone 8 .

Which (if any) of these devices could I use to play Apple Music HIfi ?
 
msankadi said:
Well, TIDAL has Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Audio since late 2019, so that isn't news here.
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Tidal costs 1500/- a month with bad UI and latency to boot
vs 129/- or (or 179 for family) and a zippy UX

I am not sure what the complaint that many folks here seemingly have - they are literally the first true hifi option available here and at a super low cost (or zero incremental cost) to boot
 
superczar said:
Tidal costs 1500/- a month with bad UI and latency to boot
vs 129/- or (or 179 for family) and a zippy UX

I am not sure what the complaint that many folks here seemingly have - they are literally the first true hifi option available here and at a super low cost (or zero incremental cost) to boot
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Don't know where you are getting this from


Tidal android app is 10 times more stable and functional compared to apple music which hangs and crashes. You can go ahead and read the android reviews, 500k reviews with average rating of 3.7 zippy ui for apple music! Lol! It is not even functional and glitchfree what will you do with a crashing app that crashes in a ziffy?

Plus their are legal ways of getting tidal at the same rate you are quoting for apple music. Plus truly hifi, right now, not in the future. Plus no restrictions. Plus did I mention amazing and glitchfree android experience? Plus did I mention glitchfree integration with jriver, rune, bubble upnp etc

On top of that iTunes is so so pathetic i think it should be banned from windows for an absolute abomination. Tidal again on windows is perfect no issues. So not sure how you have arrived at views. The android and windows experience of apple music is useless and actually derogatory to call it functional
 
msankadi said:
Don't know where you are getting this from


Tidal android app is 10 times more stable and functional compared to apple music which hangs and crashes. You can go ahead and read the android reviews, 500k reviews with average rating of 3.7 zippy ui for apple music! Lol! It is not even functional and glitchfree what will you do with a crashing app that crashes in a ziffy?

Plus their are legal ways of getting tidal at the same rate you are quoting for apple music. Plus truly hifi, right now, not in the future. Plus no restrictions. Plus did I mention amazing and glitchfree android experience? Plus did I mention glitchfree integration with jriver, rune, bubble upnp etc

On top of that iTunes is so so pathetic i think it should be banned from windows for an absolute abomination. Tidal again on windows is perfect no issues. So not sure how you have arrived at views. The android and windows experience of apple music is useless and actually derogatory to call it functional
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Have you used Tidal in India?
 

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msankadi said:
Yep almost using it for past year or so in India. Attached some screenshots just as proof.
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No need for posting proof..
Was a simple question..
I am just surprised that you find using Tidal convenient over Apple Music ..

Personally I gave up on it partly because of the relatively poor search - but largely because of the UI latency - which made it cumbersome to use
On both aspects, Spotify is the winner for me followed by AM
 
superczar said:
Tidal costs 1500/- a month with bad UI and latency to boot
vs 129/- or (or 179 for family) and a zippy UX

I am not sure what the complaint that many folks here seemingly have - they are literally the first true hifi option available here and at a super low cost (or zero incremental cost) to boot
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There are ways to get it much much cheaper if you know how .. I have never faced any issues with latency and the UI works just fine, both desktop and Android.. I miss the excellent search and recommendation capability of Spotify though (had free account from a past offer).I use Tidal and YT as of now... I have not used AM though, I may try it in the future..
 
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ibose said:
There are ways to get it much much cheaper if you know how .. I have never faced any issues with latency and the UI works just fine, both desktop and Android.. I miss the excellent search and recommendation capability of Spotify though (had free account from a past offer).I use Tidal and YT as of now... I have not used AM though, I may try it in the future..
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Ya I was using it for just 100rs per month by sharing it with other people. If apple can provide lossless studio for same price, it's a great deal for Indians. I just hope it's not a promotional offer and they change it to a higher tier subscription for lossless later on.
 
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